Barbour Defends Use of State Plane

Republican Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour travels frequently on the state government’s private jet, with Mississippi taxpayers spending more than $500,000 over the past three years on his air travel, Politico reports.

Some of Barbour’s jet travel clearly benefits the state, but sometimes he has used the plane to go to fundraisers for himself and other Republican candidates and committees, to football games and to at least one boxing match. So the issue might come up if he runs for president in 2012.

Dan Turner, a spokesman for Barbour, defended the flights as vital to the state’s economy. "Gov. Barbour is an effective marketing tool in a state that really needs it," he writes in an e-mail. "In other states, people don't necessarily appreciate the idea of a governor being so outgoing about promoting the state, whether it's in Congress or in boardrooms."